Alberts
writes, in her introduction, "The name of this book is taken from the
text of a government meeting held in 1969, during which reference is made
to "the extremely unfortunate Skull Valley incident." In Skull
Valley, an American military test of a deadly nerve gas went terribly wrong
and resulted in the death of several thousand sheep downwind from the test
site." Could AIDS and CFS be the result of experiments gone terribly
wrong or terribly right?

In The Extremely Unfortunate
Skull Valley Incident, the reader is taken into the shadowy underworld
of American military politics to examine the role of various agencies
in the development and testing of biological and chemical weapons. Facts
are taken from U.S. government documents, studied in the context of historical
events and then used to form a hypothesis that the infectious agents responsible
for the current epidemics of AIDS and CFS were created in a military lab.

The name of this book
is taken from the text of a government meeting held in 1969, during which
reference is made to "the extremely unfortunate Skull Valley incident."
In Skull Valley, an American military test of a deadly nerve gas went
terribly wrong and resulted in the death of several thousand sheep downwind
from the test site. Thus, the title of this book serves to remind the
reader that errors and unforseen events do occur and when they occur with
biological weapons, the results are devastating.

June 9, 1969 Department of Defense records indicate that on this date a meeting
was held between Dr. Donald MacArthur, Director of Research in the Biological
Warfare Branch of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and a small group
of U.S. Congressmen. An official record of that meeting, obtained through
the Freedom of Information Act, provides shocking revelations, even 30
years later.

Dr. MacArthur reported
to the Congressmen that within 5 to 10 years it would be possible to create
a synthetic biological agent that would disable the human immune system.
Two versions would be developed, one that would leave its victims dead,
and another that would chronically disable its victims. He requested,
and was given, 10 million dollars to perform the research. He warned the
congressmen that this was highly controversial research because an error
in testing the new agent, or some unforeseen development, may release
a pathogen that could kill or disable millions of innocent victims.

1976-1984
Isolated cases of two strange new diseases began appearing in the U.S.
and in Africa. Some of the victims died; others remained seriously ill
for years.

By 1984, there were
two epidemics underway. AIDS was rapidly spreading through many third
world countries and the homosexual population of North America. Clusters
of a mysterious disease later named chronic fatigue syndrome were reported
throughout North America.

We now know that both
illnesses are characterized by marked loss of immune system integrity.
One of the diseases kills its victims, while the other disables. It is
interesting to note that Dr. MacArthur's timeline of 5-10 years puts us
well within the years that AIDS and CFS first made their debuts. The authors
ask if this is simply a coincidence, or if the DoD were indeed successful
in their endeavours.

Much of what happened
between the years 1969 and 1984 has never been uncovered. For those years,
the authors delve into history to paint a picture of what might have occurred.
Yet, the fact remains that in 1969 the DoD promised two new diseases in
5-10 years, and 5-10 years later two new diseases, matching the criteria,
emerged.

One is left to ponder
the rationale for introducing any new diseases into the world, let alone
two as devastating as AIDS and CFS. The authors take us back through history
to develop a view of the political climate that made this effort possible.

AIDS
According to the authors, in the early 1900's, several prominent American
families began to worry that world population growth would threaten their
established position and power, as well as the global position of the
United States. Certain third world countries supplied raw products to
the U.S. at extremely low prices. It was thought that if the population
of these countries continued to grow at an exponential rate, they would
then require the raw products for their own population. American production
and quality of living was greatly threatened.

This ideology was transformed
into action in 1959 when a report to President Eisenhower recommended
that, for the above mentioned reasons of national security, a method must
be found to accelerate the death rate in those countries.

CFS
During World War II, interest in chemical and biological weapons began
to grow. The Nazi's had well-developed chemical weapons that they used
to exterminate millions of Jews. The Japanese had well-developed biological
weapons which they tested in New Guinea and on prisoners of war in Manchuria.
At war's end, some Nazi and Japanese scientists were offered immunity
from prosecution as war criminals if they would share their secrets with
the United States Department of Defense.

At the DoD meeting
on June 9, 1969, interest was expressed in biological and chemical weapons
that disable the enemy, rather than kill them. The rationale was that
it is a tremendous burden for the enemy to have to care for its disabled
population. Dr. MacArthur reported that his department had some of the
top scientists in the country working "for years" to develop
"more effective incapacitating agents", but that it was very
difficult work. Key in this statement are the words for years and more
effective. They imply that the DoD is already studying certain incapacitating
agents, and are now focusing on making them more disabling. What were
these agents, and where were they being tested?

Also revealed was the
fact that the U.S. DoD had over 2,000 people working in its laboratories
and an annual budget of $90 million dollars for chemical and biological
weapons research. What were they doing?

The authors do not
examine in detail the pathogen responsible for AIDS, perhaps subscribing
to the belief that the HIV virus is the culprit. It does, indeed, fit
Dr. MacArthur's criteria of being previously unknown and disabling to
the human immune system.

They do, however, provide
evidence to suggest that laboratory manipulation of the brucellosis
bacteria has resulted in a pathogen that causes the disease later named
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Brucellosis is a pathogen
that has been around for centuries, generally causing disease in farm
animals, and only occasionally making the leap to humans. In most cases,
the victim recovers after a few weeks or months, but in some instances
a chronic disease would develop. The symptoms attributed to brucellosis
are familiar: low grade fever, malaise, fatigue, headache, weakness, sweats,
chills, backache, myalgias, anorexia, nausea, cough and major organ damage.
The onset of brucellosis can be acute or gradual. The disease typically
presents a multitude of complaints and very few physical findings. It
is notoriously difficult to diagnose based upon laboratory findings.

The fact that brucellosis
has been around for centuries ties in with the belief that CFS is not
a new disease. Brucellosis infection occurred occasionally and would have
presented as a disease very similar to CFS, as seems to be the case with
Florence Nightingale. However, no one will dispute the fact that beginning
in the early 1980's, unprecedented numbers of individuals began acquiring
this disease. Something happened to make this disease much more prevalent
and much more disabling. The Extremely Unfortunate Skull Valley Incident
argues compellingly that this change occurred in the laboratory.

If indeed AIDS and
CFS are the products of the DoD efforts to create a new microorganism
for which there would be no natural immunity, then how did they make the
leap from the laboratory to the world's population. The problem with biological
weapons is that they have to be tested. It is a very daunting challenge
indeed to recruit willing volunteers for biological weapons testing. How,
then, would their effectiveness be measured?

AIDS
As no official record has been found directly linking AIDS to the DoD,
the authors are left to study history for the connection. If Dr. MacArthur's
5-10 year projection was correct, sometime in the mid 1970's the new agents
would be ready for testing. It is just at this time that the World Health
Organization, with funding from the United States, initiated a program
of 'smallpox eradication' in many of the countries targeted earlier by
the U.S. as needing population control. Villagers flocked to the vaccination
centers, eager for this weapon against the deadly disease. 5 years later,
a high percentage of these villagers had AIDS. Today many of these countries
are associated with devastating incidences of AIDS (including much of
Africa), and their populations are indeed being reduced.

In 1979, under the supervision
of Dr. Don Francis of the Centers for Disease Control (who also oversaw
the smallpox eradication program), gay men in New York, Los Angeles and
San Francisco received vaccinations against 'Hepatitis B'. Again, a high
percentage of the recipients came down with AIDS. The authors make special
note of this coincidence.

CFS
The authors develop the theory that there have been many tests, over the
years and on unsuspecting victims, to perfect the disabling pathogen that
causes CFS. Those who have studied the history of CFS will immediately
recognize such places as Akureyri, Iceland; Key West, Florida; Truckee,
Nevada; and Lyndonville, New York. The authors point out that each early
outbreak occurred in a relatively isolated or contained location and within
a specific population; i.e. elementary school children in Lyndonville
and high school teachers in Truckee. Schools and hospitals seem to have
been favorite test sites. The authors assume that the isolated locales
were specifically chosen as to minimize publicity and to help contain
the pathogen should an accident or unforeseen event occur. The specific
populations targeted would simply make it easier to monitor the outcome
of the test.

Typically, the Centers
for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health helped the military
to monitor such tests. These agencies would need to, at the very least,
be informed of the testing, because it would fall to them to investigate
such outbreaks. The last thing the DoD needed was the CDC or NIH investigator
innocently publicizing information that could link the outbreak with the
biological weapons program.

The Gulf War Syndrome
Connection
An official United States Government document cited by the authors details
several shipments of biological weapons to Iraq between the years 1985
and 1989. These weapons were sent to Iraq to assist in the war against
Iran. Included on the list of agents shipped to Iraq are Brucella abortus
Biotypes 3 and 9; and Brucella melitensis Biotypes 1 and 3, the pathogens
the authors claim cause CFS. The authors believe that these agents, along
with a 'cocktail of others' were subsequently used against Allied forces
in the Gulf War, causing Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), a condition nearly identical
to CFS.

The U.S. Government's
own documents list the symptoms of Brucella melitensis as: chronic fatigue,
loss of appetite, profuse sweating when at rest, pain in joints and muscles,
nausea, and damage to major organs. How did they find out what the symptoms
of infection with this biological agent are?

It's all in your
head
It's easy to see why the official government response to CFS and GWS has
been to readily promote the notion that sufferers are mentally ill. Were
the physical basis for these illnesses documented and the connection made
to the American, Canadian and British militaries, and therefore governments,
the repercussions for such agencies would be astronomical. It is interesting
to note that the initial government response to AIDS was to claim mental
illness. That story was rapidly discarded, however, when AIDS victims
began dying en masse.

The Extremely Unfortunate
Skull Valley Incident is, at the very least, a thought provoking work.
Much of what the authors detail is difficult to imagine. Throughout the
book, the authors contempt for those involved, and indeed the entire process,
is clearly discernable. Yet, one wonders, who wouldn't be angry at the
individuals responsible for such devastating events?

Upon completion of
the book, I couldn't help but wonder about the authors' account of the
testing of the brucellosis pathogen. Why the outbreaks in Iceland, the
U.S., Canada and Great Britain? If Africans were deemed expendable enough
to warrant testing of the AIDS virus, then why not test the brucellosis
pathogen there as well? Essentially, why disable your own population?
Or, did something get out of hand, as it did in Skull Valley? Perhaps
the DoD ended up with a pathogen that was not as easily containable as
they thought it would be.

It would be easy to
simply disregard this work, believing that it's nonsensical speculation
and far too outrageous to have any foundation in the truth. However, just
the simple facts, detailed in the U.S. government's own documents, speak
volumes. In 1969, the Pentagon promised a new infectious agent that the
human immune system would be unable to defend against. One version would
be deadly, the other chronic and disabling. By 1979 we witnessed the emergence
of two new diseases which disable the immune system. One was deadly, the
other chronic and disabling. In the 1980's, the U.S. sold biological weapons
components to Iraq, including one which causes an illness identical to
Gulf War Syndrome. Following a war against Iraq, soldiers developed this
disease.

Scott, Donald W.
& Scott, William L. C. 1997. The Extremely Unfortunate Accident at
Skull Valley. The Chelmsford Publishers, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. No
longer in print though used copies may be found or special ordered through
some online booksellers.